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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, March 24 – UNESCO, like the whole UN system under Antonio Guterres was been falling apart in corruption and fraud.

  Inner City Press has been reporting on serious malfeasance by the French Audrey Azoulay administration at UNESCO in Paris, almost as bad as Antonio Guterres' corruption in and of the UN in New York. A fish rots from the head.

In our latest news report on UNESCO of March 16, (here), we underlined the following : “By March 15, the deadline for submitting candidates for the post of Director-General of UNESCO, in addition to the Egyptian candidate, Dr Khaled Al-Anani, former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, two other candidates were presented – both from the UNESCO Secretariat. The two internal candidates are the ADG for Social and human sciences, Mexico's Gabriela Ramos, and the other one is DG Azoulay's yes-man and ADG for External Affairs and Africa, Vietnamese-Congolese Firmin Matoko. 

We also wrote that “Gabriela Ramos is best known in the SHS sector for having been authorized by DG Azoulay to exercise totalitarian control over staff, including intimidation and harassment that coerce staff members into fear and obedience. For years, Azoulay took no action against her and continued to protect her against documented complaints from her staff to Ethics and the IOS.

This proves that Azoulay is delighted with Ramos' candidacy as all her efforts to protect Ramos are now paying off”.  Now we come to the bombshell revelation from Inner City Press. In January 2024, IOS launched a formal investigation against Gabriela Ramos for misconduct and harassment following complaints from several Social and Human Sciences Sector (SHS) staff members. This investigation was closed last year.  Thus, IOS report number 2024/02, of December 2024, was finalized by IOS and presented to DG Audrey Azoulay for administrative action. Instead, DG Azoulay sat on the report and let time run out, clearly waiting for the March 15, 2025 deadline to allow Gabriela Ramos to run as her successor as DG of UNESCO.

  We have taken cognizance of IOS report number 2024/02 and the details of the investigation carried out against the ADG for SHS, Gabriela Ramos. The IOS report is very clear and conclusive regarding Gabriela Ramos' proven harassment practices. She has been found guilty on all counts, and there are no doubts left to play with. The report, written in French, gives concrete examples of severe harassment by Ramos and her extremely harsh management style which caused SHS staff to suffer.  In addition, following IOS report 2024/02, a Letter of charges was sent to Gabriela Ramos by the UNESCO administration. Consequently, in her current situation as a candidate for the post of DG, Ramos still has to answer to UNESCO's internal justice system for her actions in contravention of the Organization's rules and regulations.

 If the Mexican government had read the IOS report, it would probably never have presented her candidacy.  However, the Mexican authorities still have plenty of time to read the report and consider withdrawing Ms Ramos from the race to avoid a shameful situation in which she leads her country directly into a paradoxical situation in which the Mexican candidate for DG is about to be dismissed for misconduct. We also expect that, following our revelation, Gabriela Ramos will herself leave UNESCO in the next few days, in order to avoid immediate dismissal.

  Whatever DG Azoulay's decision, she will still have to explain to member states why, unlike a similar case in the recent past, she has decided to treat Ramos differently by granting her privileged treatment. Indeed, unlike a recent case in which, following the IOS report containing similar conclusions, the ADG for Natural Sciences, South Africa's Shamila Nair-Bedouelle, was immediately placed on special leave and dismissed from her position. In the case of Gabriela Ramos, nothing of the sort happened

.  The question is, then, why DG Azoulay is playing this game against the Egyptian candidate, when it's clear that the other candidate, Firmin Matoko, is not a serious contender but rather a dealer who will trade his support for Egypt in due course for money or a high position within UNESCO.  In the same vein, we learn from our sources in DG Azoulay's Office that Gabriela Ramos' legal counsel will now ask IOS to include in the report the actual names of the SHS staff members who complained against her, instead of the first version prepared in December 2024 of the IOS 2024/02 report, where staff members are only mentioned with their initials.   With all this exposure and information now made public by Inner City Press, it remains to be seen whether the governing bodies and in particular the Executive Board will allow that this scandal of the IOS report, which was not followed by any administrative action against Gabriela Ramos, to be kept under the carpet.

  It once happened already with the case of the violation of the Constitution by DG Azoulay (here) when the President of the General Conference, Romanian Ambassador Simona-Mirela Miculescu proved to be extremely weak, indecisive and totally inconsistent with her pretentions for multilateral leadership.

 If the Executive Board is to use its prerogatives, then it can require IOS to disclose to the members of the Board the content of IOS report 2024/02, as there is a precedent for doing so. A few years ago, under the previous administration of Bulgarian Irina Bokova, an IOS report was duly communicated to Executive Board members concerning the appointment of Ana Luiza Thompson-Flores, described by the UK representative as an “under-qualified” Brazilian, to the post of ADG for Strategic Planning. Mrs. Bokova's decision was subsequently rejected by the Board, and Ana Luiza Thompson-Flores was dismissed.  This is where UNESCO stands today, a UN agency ravaged by greed and financial misappropriations, propitious to the flourishing of abuse of power, corruption and nepotism. Watch this site.

This is where UNESCO stands today. We will have more on that. Watch this site.

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